New lift installation · Platform & passenger · UK-wide
Survey-led platform and passenger lift installation, from feasibility to handover.
BASE installs new platform and passenger lifts across the UK — survey, specification, structural prep, install, commissioning, and compliance handover from a single engineering team. Typical platform-lift install runs 8-16 weeks from contract; passenger lifts 12-20 weeks, with BS EN 81 commissioning and a LOLER thorough examination cleared before handover.
A BASE lift installation runs in six beats: feasibility survey on site, written specification signed off, design and consents (Building Control, planning where the shaft is external, listed-building consent where applicable), install of rails / car / drive / landings, commissioning to BS EN 81-20 for passenger lifts or BS EN 81-41 for platform lifts, and a pre-handover LOLER thorough examination by an independent competent person before the lift carries its first passenger. We do not pull rope at the milestone, and we do not redesign in flight.
01
Feasibility survey
An engineer attends site to measure the proposed shaft, head and pit, identify load paths, confirm power supply and check for asbestos, listed-building or planning constraints. The survey produces a written feasibility note: what will fit, what won't, what structural or electrical changes the building needs before installation can start. For occupied retrofits we walk every alternative position before settling on one — sometimes the obvious location is the worst location.
Site measurement
Constraints captured
Written feasibility note
02
Specification
Drive type, capacity, travel, stops, car size, finishes, doors and controls are specified against the building's use. Care homes get hospital-grade stretcher capacity and intuitive raised tactile controls; Grade II listed retrofits get a hydraulic or screw drive with minimal pit and headroom intrusion; commercial fit-outs get traction MRL for energy efficiency and through-life cost. Specification is signed off in writing before any order is placed — we do not redesign in flight.
Drive type chosen
Sign-off in writing
No in-flight changes
03
Design and consents
Shop drawings are produced and issued to the structural engineer, the architect, and the M&E consultant. Building Control sees the package before the cut date. Where the lift sits in an external shaft, planning permission is obtained or confirmed exempt. Where the lift is in a listed building, listed-building consent is the gate — and our drawings are pitched to satisfy it without watering down the engineering. Factory order is placed only after all consents are in hand.
Shop drawings issued
Building Control package
Planning + listed consent
04
Install
Structural opening prepared by the principal contractor or our subcontracted package; rails, car, drive unit and landings installed by the BASE engineering team. Residential retrofits are sequenced around the household — install can run in occupied homes with 1-2 week disruption windows rather than full vacant possession. Commercial fit-outs run alongside the main programme; we work to the principal contractor's lift-cut milestone and do not pull rope.
Rails, car, drive
Occupied-home OK
To programme milestone
05
Commissioning
Full functional commissioning against BS EN 81-20 for passenger lifts or BS EN 81-41 for platform lifts: travel, levelling, door operation, safety circuits, emergency lowering, overspeed governor, brake, intercom and battery backup. Where the lift is an accessibility provision, the commissioning includes Equality Act 2010 evidence — call-button height, tactile signage, audible announcements, visual indicators. The commissioning record is the first page of the building O&M manual.
BS EN 81-20 / 81-41
Equality Act evidence
Goes into the O&M
06
LOLER + handover
Before the lift carries its first passenger or its first load, an independent competent person performs a LOLER 1998 thorough examination — Form 80, Schedule 1, the lot. Defects (if any) are cleared on the spot, the report is signed, the lift goes live, and the building gets a full handover pack: O&M manual, drawings, certification, training for in-house facilities staff, and the next-due date for the six- or twelve-month examination. The maintenance contract starts at handover, or never if the building prefers an independent maintainer downstream.
Drive selection is the second-most-important specification decision after position. Hydraulic and screw drives suit retrofits and heritage settings because they minimise pit and headroom intrusion. Traction MRL is the new-build commercial default. Pneumatic vacuum sits in a niche where no structural intrusion is acceptable. Every drive is installed against the relevant BS EN 81 baseline.
Drive
Character
Typical use
Travel
Fit
Hydraulic
Oil-pressure ram drive — quiet, smooth ride, modest pit and headroom, retrofit-friendly. Common for low-rise residential platform and passenger lifts.
Residential · Listed
≤ 18 m
Retrofit / new
Hydraulic Retrofit / new
Oil-pressure ram drive — quiet, smooth ride, modest pit and headroom, retrofit-friendly. Common for low-rise residential platform and passenger lifts.
Typical use
Travel
Residential · Listed
≤ 18 m
Traction (MRL)
Permanent-magnet machine-room-less gearless drive — energy-efficient, regenerative options, no machine room required. The default for new-build commercial passenger lifts.
Commercial · New-build
≤ 60 m
New
Traction (MRL) New
Permanent-magnet machine-room-less gearless drive — energy-efficient, regenerative options, no machine room required. The default for new-build commercial passenger lifts.
Typical use
Travel
Commercial · New-build
≤ 60 m
Screw
Screw-and-nut platform drive — minimal pit (often nil) and reduced headroom, fully self-supporting structure available. Suits Grade II listed and tight retrofits.
Listed · Heritage
≤ 13 m
Retrofit
Screw Retrofit
Screw-and-nut platform drive — minimal pit (often nil) and reduced headroom, fully self-supporting structure available. Suits Grade II listed and tight retrofits.
Typical use
Travel
Listed · Heritage
≤ 13 m
Pneumatic
Vacuum-tube passenger lift — self-supporting cylindrical tube, no pit, no shaft, plug-and-play install. Niche residential and accessibility installations where structural intrusion is unacceptable.
Residential · Accessibility
≤ 15 m
Retrofit
Pneumatic Retrofit
Vacuum-tube passenger lift — self-supporting cylindrical tube, no pit, no shaft, plug-and-play install. Niche residential and accessibility installations where structural intrusion is unacceptable.
Typical use
Travel
Residential · Accessibility
≤ 15 m
Residential
New + retrofit
New-build houses, apartments, and retrofit into occupied homes
Listed (Grade II)
Sensitively
Drive selection minimises structural intrusion, drawings pitched for listed-building consent
Independent across every major UK lift manufacturer.
We install factory-supplied lifts from every major platform and passenger manufacturer in the UK market. Brand selection is downstream of position and drive type — we recommend the make that fits the engineering, not the make that pays the highest commission. (We do not take commission.)
What architects and building owners ask before contract.
How long does a new lift installation take from contract to handover?
Platform lifts run 8-16 weeks from contract signature to handover. Passenger lifts run 12-20 weeks. Drive type, building access, structural readiness and the factory lead-time on the chosen make all shift the number — a screw-drive Cibes into a domestic retrofit can complete in 8 weeks because the structure is self-supporting; a traction MRL Otis into a new commercial tower depends on the principal contractor's lift-cut milestone and tends to land near the 20-week ceiling. The feasibility survey produces a programme bar inside two weeks; that is the number you commit to your funder or your fit-out programme.
How does a BASE lift installation work?
Six beats. Feasibility survey on site, written specification signed off, design and consents (Building Control, planning if the shaft is external, listed-building consent if applicable), install (rails, car, drive, landings), commissioning to BS EN 81-20 or BS EN 81-41, and a pre-handover LOLER thorough examination by an independent competent person before the lift carries its first passenger. The handover pack is full: O&M manual, drawings, certification, in-house facilities training. We do not pull rope at the milestone, and we do not redesign in flight.
Can BASE install a lift in a Grade II listed building?
Yes, regularly. Listed installations live or die on the drive selection and the drawings package. Hydraulic and screw drives are the heritage workhorses because they need minimal pit and reduced headroom and are often self-supporting — the structural intrusion into the listed fabric is small enough that Conservation Officers will sign listed-building consent. Pneumatic vacuum lifts are a niche heritage solution where the lift needs to land in a previously un-shafted space. We pitch the drawings to the Conservation Officer, not to a generic Building Control template, so consent is the gate it should be rather than a months-long correction loop.
Do we need planning permission for a new lift?
Internal lift installations within an existing building generally do not need planning permission — they fall under permitted development or are covered by Building Control alone. External shafts (a steel-and-glass shaft bolted to the rear of a building, a freestanding accessibility lift in a courtyard) almost always need planning, and the application has to address materials, scale, neighbour impact and operational noise. Listed buildings need listed-building consent on top, internal or external. BASE handles the technical drawings for both applications; the planning agent on the project (or, if there isn't one, we recommend one) handles the LPA submission.
What drive types do you install?
Four. Hydraulic — oil-pressure ram, quiet, retrofit-friendly, common on low-rise residential platform and passenger lifts. Traction (MRL) — machine-room-less permanent-magnet gearless drive, energy-efficient with regenerative options, the default for new-build commercial passenger lifts. Screw — screw-and-nut platform drive, minimal pit and headroom, often self-supporting, suited to Grade II listed retrofits. Pneumatic — vacuum-tube passenger lift, no pit, no shaft, plug-and-play, niche residential and accessibility installations where structural intrusion is unacceptable. Drive selection is the second-most-important decision after position; see our knowledge guide on lift types for the decision matrix.
What compliance is the lift handed over against?
Three regimes layered together. BS EN 81-20 governs passenger-lift design, construction and commissioning; BS EN 81-41 governs platform-lift design, construction and commissioning. LOLER 1998 — Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations — requires an independent competent person to perform a thorough examination before the lift carries its first passenger, with the Schedule 1 written report (Form 80) issued in your hands. Where the lift is an accessibility provision, the Equality Act 2010 sits on top: call-button height, tactile signage, audible announcements, visual indicators all evidenced in the commissioning record. All three are in the handover pack on day one.
Can we install a lift in an occupied home or building?
Yes — this is most of our retrofit work. Occupied installs are sequenced around the household or the operating business with 1-2 week disruption windows rather than full vacant possession. A typical occupied-home platform-lift retrofit needs three phases: a structural week (where the opening is formed and dust containment is in place), an install week (rails, car, drive landed), and a commissioning week (handover-ready). The household lives upstairs of the works for one week, alongside them for two, and back to normal at the end. We carry the dust containment, the floor protection and the noise-window discipline that occupied work demands — the principal contractor doesn't need to teach us this.
Do you offer a maintenance contract after install?
Yes, but only if you want one. The maintenance contract is offered at handover and starts the day the lift goes live. Some buildings prefer to retain an independent maintainer downstream — managing agents with portfolio contracts elsewhere, residential owners who like the BASE installer / different-maintainer arrangement to preserve independence — and we are happy with that arrangement too. The pre-handover LOLER is independent in both cases. See our maintenance overview and our maintenance contracts page for the options.
Start with a feasibility survey
Tell us about the building. We'll send an engineer to measure.
A platform lift retrofit into a Grade II listed home, a passenger-lift fit-out in a new commercial tower, an accessibility lift in a care home or a school — every install starts with a written feasibility survey within two weeks of enquiry. No obligation to proceed, and the survey number is the number you commit to your programme.
